Nunn Scores 18 in Return as Panathinaikos Beat Peristeri 95-75

By Taki Panos

Some Sundays are quiet, and some Sundays two of your best guards walk back onto the floor and both hit a three with their first shot. Panathinaikos AKTOR beat Peristeri Betsson 95-75 at Telekom Center Athens in round 3 of the Greek Basket League, as Gazzetta reported, and the headline was the season debut of Kendrick Nunn and Kostas Sloukas. Nunn led Panathinaikos with 18 points and 6 assists in less than 21 minutes, per Sportal, and looked like a man who had never been away.

For readers just catching up, Panathinaikos came into the weekend stung by their first EuroLeague loss of the season, against Hapoel Tel Aviv on Friday (here is our report from that night). Peristeri arrived unbeaten in the league, a few days after a comeback win over Varese in the Basketball Champions League. The game was played behind closed doors, Newspao noted, so the only noise came from the benches. With the win, Panathinaikos moved to 3-0 in the GBL, while Peristeri dropped to 2-1 and took their first loss, per Sportal.

Peristeri actually scored first, a three from Petrakis for 0-3, and the home side needed almost two minutes to get on the board, SDNA reported. Then the defence woke up. Sylvain Francisco and Dinos Mitoglou pushed it to 13-5 after five minutes, with six of those points coming off three steals, per Sport24. Nunn and Sloukas checked in a little after the eighth minute and hit back-to-back threes from the same corner, both set up by Guerschon Yabusele, for the 26-13 that closed the first quarter. Nice timing, gentlemen.

The second quarter was more of the same. Mantzoukas, Yabusele and Badio hit three straight threes to make it 34-16 before the 12th minute, Sport24 reported, and the gap kept growing. Francisco had 15 points by halftime, and Nigel Hayes-Davis closed the half with a long three for a 52-29 lead, according to Gazzetta. At the break, Panathinaikos were 9 of 16 from three, with 14 assists against only 3 turnovers, SDNA noted. That is the kind of first half coaches put on a video for the next practice.

The quiet hero was Dinos Mitoglou. The Greek big man had a double-double before halftime, 12 points and 10 rebounds, and finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, ERT reported, calling it the most complete game of his time with the club. Francisco ended on 15 points and Hayes-Davis on 11, while Juancho Hernangómez was one point short of a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds, per Sportal. In a roster full of big names, it was good to see a Greek forward set the tone.

Nunn's line deserves a closer look. He went 3 of 4 inside the arc and 4 of 6 from three, never went to the free-throw line, and finished with a PIR rating of 21 in 20:54, as both Gazzetta and Sportal reported. The American guard hurt his knee in individual training over the summer and needed surgery, Sport24 recalled, so he missed all of preseason and almost a full month of games. Newspao counted 132 days since his last appearance. It honestly did not look like it.

Sloukas, the captain, played 16:16 and scored 6 points on 2 of 2 from three, with two rebounds and an assist, Sportal reported. The plus-minus tells the rest of the story: Panathinaikos were +21 with him on the floor, second only to Hernangómez at +22. Obradovic even opened the third quarter with Nunn and Sloukas together, alongside Kalaitzakis, Hernangómez and Mitoglou, a lineup ERT described as one from the old days. Remember, this team was already winning without them, as in the 72-55 win in Belgrade, so this is pure depth on top.

The third quarter turned it into a rout. Nunn opened it with a three for the first 26-point lead, and Panathinaikos went up by 36 at 73-37 with three minutes left in the period, Gazzetta and Sport24 reported. Obradovic then started managing minutes, and Giannis Kouzeloglou got the last four minutes of the quarter, which ended 75-46, per ERT. Peristeri never stopped fighting. They grabbed 22 offensive rebounds, Sport24's numbers show, but simply could not shoot, going 9 of 36 from three.

The one worry on the day was Yabusele. The French forward did not return for the second half after aggravating a knock he first took in the Hapoel game, Sportal reported, and the club chose not to risk making it worse. He played 8:01 with 3 points, 2 rebounds and a block, and NewsIT said the decision was a precaution with Baskonia coming to Athens on Thursday. In a game this one-sided, resting him was the easy call.

Before tip-off, Obradovic had played down Friday's defeat. "It doesn't matter that it was the first loss. Losses are part of our lives. The important thing is to understand the way we have to play," he said, per SDNA (translated from Greek). On the returning guards, he added: "We are talking about two players of huge quality." Nunn sounded just as happy afterwards. "I feel great to be back. Thank God I'm back. I feel good and I want to bring that energy to the team," he said, as quoted by Newspao (translated from Greek), adding that the team still has to find its chemistry.

My take: the score matters less than the depth chart. With Nunn and Sloukas back, Obradovic suddenly has guards to spare, and that changes how Panathinaikos can handle a long EuroLeague winter. Mitoglou playing like this is a bonus. The Yabusele knock is the thing to watch this week. And the fact that Obradovic still called a furious timeout at 89-70 in the final minutes, as SDNA reported, tells you he is not treating any of this as a finished product. Good. He never does.

Next up, Panathinaikos host Baskonia in round 7 of the EuroLeague on Thursday, October 22, at 21:15 Athens time, Newspao reported. Back in the GBL, they welcome Karditsa on Saturday, October 24, at 19:00, again behind closed doors, per Sportal, while Peristeri face Maroussi the same day at 17:30, Sport24 reported. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for all of it. The band is back together.

Sources: Gazzetta, Sport24, Sportal, SDNA, ERT Sports, Newspao, NewsIT.

Image: Panathinaikos BC crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).